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The Canon PowerShot G3X measures 12cm wide, 8cm deep and 11cm from the screen to the front of the lens when closed however when fully zoomed this last figure increases to 17cm. So with that amount of optical zoom (25x) you will not be surprised that it weighs a good bit more than most PowerShot offerings at 738grams.
Of course all recent cameras have to have the ability to take selfies so the TFT can flip through 180 degrees to show above the camera.
External connections live behind a sprung hinged door on the right side. The left side has connections behind a rubber bung flap for external microphone and headphones as well as a rather fiddly flash raise slider.
The face has the 8.8-320mm lens (25x optical) as well as the shutter release that is so far forward as not really to be part of the top. Around the shutter release is the zoom control.
Along the top from left to right are the pop up flash, external flash shoe, 13 position mode wheel, on/off button, programmable wheel and quick access video capture button.
The back has the 6.7x4.5cm TFT, a Wi-Fi button above the TFT, at the top right the rubberised thumb anchor point with one button to its left and two to its right, below this a pair of buttons then the ubiquitous five position joystick and finally another button, all these are well marked as to their functions.
This leaves the base which has the battery bay with 920mAh battery as well as any SD card you insert; there is also a double tripod screw.
From all this you know this must be a top of the range PowerShot and a lot of people who have seen me using it have assumed it’s a DSLR because of the size of the lens, however this is still a PowerShot.
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Even though this has a huge lens which with stability can capture great wildlife without even getting close it can still capture great images close by without recourse to having to back off.
In the hands of an expect this would probably be used with an external flash but apart from the fiddly opening control I found the 1.4x.35 pop up flash covered the scene well, in its popped up state it can never be closer that 3cm above and slightly to the left of the lens.
This is not a technical review but I must mention the 20MP CMOS and the 9 blade aperture lens which of course give the stunning images that this wonderful camera captures.
You can capture close to six shots a second in continuous mode.
As regular readers will know I am a Dinosaur when it comes to video on cameras but I can say it does take good videos up to 60FPS as well and the sound it captures is also quite good but no doubt an expect would use external microphones.
Overall the control is that you get with a DSLR unit and for a PowerShot unit that is high praise.
The Canon PowerShot G3X is available from Amazon for £599.99. Much more information can be found on the Canon website for this excellent camera.
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